RotoWire News: Leake (9-12) took the loss in his final start of the year after allowing two runs on five hits over five innings against the Reds on Wednesday. He struck out six and didn't issue a walk. (9/28/2016)

Profile: When Leake made his season debut on April 11th of 2010, he became the first pitcher taken in the draft to completely skip the minor leagues since Ariel Prieto in 1995. Darren Dreifort in 1994 and Jim Abbott in 1989 are the only other two pitchers to perform a similar feat in the last 30-plus years. Unfortunately, that's not a huge sample from which to draw conclusions. That said, Abbott may actually make a pretty decent comp given what we know of Leake so far. Despite the differences in handedness, each was a college pitcher with lower-than-average K rates, league-average walk rates, and above-average groundball rates. (Abbott's career 1.59 ground-out/air-out ratio suggests something very similar to the 50.2% GB that Leake posted.) Abbott's best seasons, 1991 and 1992, were the product of a peak in all those categories plus a little batted-ball luck. Leake may not quite reach Abbott's heights, but makes sense as a late-round pick. (Carson Cistulli)

The Quick Opinion: One of the few pitchers to skip minors entirely in last 30 years. Ground-ball skills could make him decent back-end fantasy option.

Profile: Teams used to rush players up to the show all the time; at one point, in the mid-seventies, Gaylord Perry was the only member of the Texas Rangers old enough to rent a car. They don’t do this anymore because the whole idea is kind of dumb. Instead of working on secondary pitches and earning poise, these overmatched rookies end up getting punished for every single mistake pitch they throw, stunting their growth. Leake is frustrating because of the lack of Minor League data; basically, we know that he’s somewhere between Jim Abbott and Mike Morgan, and neither player is an inviting comparison. The trouble with Leake is that as far as sleepers go, he’s basically an inside straight draw. The park, his size, his arm strength, and his lack of experience are all strikes against him. Anyone who drafts him is basically banking on his ability to scatter his hits and walks to the degree that he becomes a league-average pitcher. (Patrick Dubuque)

The Quick Opinion: The trouble with Leake is that as far as sleepers go, he’s basically an inside straight draw. The park, his size, his arm strength, and his lack of experience are all strikes against him. Anyone who drafts him is basically banking on his ability to scatter his hits and walks to the degree that he becomes a league-average pitcher.

Profile: Leake has been replaced in the rotation by Aroldis Chapman, so he has no place being drafted in a standard league unless something happens to a starter in spring training. The Reds had an incredibly sturdy rotation last year, as only one start was made by a pitcher who was not a member of the opening day rotation. Leake will have to wait until a pitcher is injured or performs terribly to regain a spot in the rotation. With his home run tendencies, he may be better off in a new home, which may be the final outcome. (Ben Duronio)

The Quick Opinion: Mike Leake may be on his last legs in Cincinnati, as the perennial National League Central contender could not afford to watch him continue to struggle and cost them games.

Profile: Though his underlying skills were nearly identical to his 2012 season, Leake parlayed better luck into an ERA that sat more than a full run lower at 3.37. Despite having a batted ball distribution that suggests a higher than league average batting average on balls in play, excellent defensive support and good fortune kept that mark below the average, which also helped him to strand runners at a career best rate. But this is still the same pitcher as he's always been -- one with mediocre stuff who fails to induce a whole lot of swings and misses and relies on strong control and a good ground-ball rate. He should once again earn value in NL-Only leagues in 2014, but mixed leaguers should not be fooled into believing he'll be worth a roster spot. (Mike Podhorzer)

The Quick Opinion: Leake enjoyed a career year on the surface, but SIERA suggests that it was actually his worst performance from a skills perspective. He remains a low strikeout, good control pitcher, which will cap his fantasy upside and limit his value to NL-Only leagues.

Profile: Is Mike Leake the best fifth starter in baseball? More to the point: is Leake even a fifth starter anymore? Leake has developed into a back-end stalwart for the Reds, making 30 starts for three years running. He strikes out batters at a below-average rate but he compensates with good walk rates and an improved ability to keep the ball in the park since 2013. Last year saw him strike out more hitters than ever before while keeping the ball on the ground more than ever. There is some concern his strikeout rate might not be sustainable. Leake upped his sinker and slider usage, the latter proving to me a more effective pitch in 2014 than in previous seasons. Sinker/slider Mike Leake might prove to be an improvement over the "jack of all trades/master of none" kitchen-sink style he worked with earlier in his career. If Leake gives back some of his strikeouts or his sinker/slider approach produces the ugly side of such an arsenal (read: too many long balls) then Leake goes back to the fifth starter bin: a non-starter in most formats but a guy with significant real world value. (Drew Fairservice)

The Quick Opinion: Was 2014 a sign of adjustment? Mike Leake hopes a change in his pitch selection proves he's a legitimate mid-rotation starter for 2015.

Profile: If you'd like to demonstrate to a friend how much money is in baseball right now, explain to them Mike Leake's statistical profile, and then tell them the figures of his recent free agent contract with the San Francisco Giants. Five years and $80 million dollars for The Most Boring Starter in Baseball, according to my own subjective, proprietary measure. Not that there's anything wrong with that, and don't take that as a diss toward Mike Leake. Leake got paid because he's steady. 200 innings a year -- you'll get that. A solid, yet unspectacular ERA -- you'll get that. Hella ground balls -- you'll get those, too. You also might get some dingers, and you won't get barely any strikeouts, and there's gonna be a few nasty outings here and there. But Leake's turned himself into a steady two to three wins above replacement pitcher based on his consistent averageness, and that's got it's value. About $80 million worth. And Leake helps himself out, too. He's small, quick, and athletic. If he's not the best fielding pitcher in baseball, he's not far off, and with how many ground balls Leake generates, he's got plenty of opportunities to field his position and save himself some baserunners. For a pitcher, he sure can swing the bat, too, which can not only help his run support by an infinitesimal amount relative to other National League pitchers, but it can help him pick up an extra inning late in games, here and there. Those last couple sentences are the most intriguing things about Mike Leake -- the things he does off the mound. (August Fagerstrom)

The Quick Opinion: Leake's a boring fantasy pitcher with a more interesting real-life profile. He can field, he can hit, and, oh yeah, he'll throw 200 innings a year with a league-average ERA, too. Without electric stuff or any strikeouts, though, there's no real upside in a guy like Leake, unless you really buy into Cardinals magic.